1. Field of the Present Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus, system and method for internet based commerce for exchanging sales lead information in a bid process while preventing duplicate leads from being passed from one party to another.
2. Description of the Related Art
In prior art systems buyers and sellers are linked together to allow buyers to purchase lead information for individuals in the sub-prime credit application category. Information is exchanged, for example, in the auto industry, by buyers purchasing lead information from multiple third part sellers.
However, current systems have a deficiency in that duplicate lead information is prevalent, which increases cost and administrative time. Current systems do not provide the ability to cross reference lead information to prevent duplicate leads from passing to buyers, hence costing the buyer unnecessary fees for stale or repeat information.
What is needed is a wholesale auction platform that prevents duplicate lead information. Since many lead buyers have contractual agreements with multiple lead providers, a problem that many face is that they will be receiving the same lead information more than once, each time from a different provider. There is a need to solve this problem for the buyer by mandating that the seller uses a specific platform to sell leads to the buyer. For each lead that any seller wants to sell the lead buyer, there is a need for an invention that uses a duplication check process to ensure the information contained in the lead has not already been bought by the buyer.